Archive for October 9th, 2007
One More css-Tweak
I’m really out of my depths here but I’ve tried to increase the font size from the standard 62,5% (!) to 75% in the K2 stylesheet. Once again, comments are appreciated.
This Is Not a Minister
One problem with internet forums, “social network” sites and so on is that you can never be certain of the true identity of the persons you are communicating with. (Just as a case in point: You cannot be sure that I am writing this. It is perfectly possible that I have outsourced my blogging to a group of Indians.)
The Swedish Minister for Industry and leader of the Centre Party, Maud Olofsson, did exactly that yesterday when she was chatting with citizens via the homepage of the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet. Olofsson wasn’t in Stockholm or even near a computer during the event: She was at home being interviewed by the local newspaper. One of Olofsson’s press secretaries had been assigned the chatting duties instead.
Besides making Olofsson look a bit silly, what should we make of the stunt?
Just as in René Magritte’s painting, what Aftonbladet’s readers got wasn’t the minister but a representation of the minister – but did it matter politically? After all, a press secretary worth her money should know the minister’s standpoints and relay important information back to her after the publicity event.
Imagine this scenario: A bookshop announces an event where former president Bill Clinton will be signing copies of his memoirs. You turn up and wait in line for an hour only to discover that a guy named Jake Siewert is sitting at the desk, writing Clinton’s autograph in the copies. Surely you would leave just a little disappointed: The book’s content would still be the same, but the symbolic link between you and Clinton had been broken – and, yes, symbolism plays an important role in politics.
links for 2007-10-09
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it is quite arguable that the theoretical understanding of hybrid governance is still deficient. For a long time, Anna Grandori has argued that the literature over-emphasizes the “discreteness” of hybrids;
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The results of the study find a professoriate that may be less liberal than is widely assumed, even if conservatives are correctly assumed to be in a distinct minority.
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…in some cases it will replace and obsolete other enterprise tools, but in other cases it will coexist and work alongside – even in complement with – those other tools
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To encourage experimentation at the edge while protecting operations in the core, two networks work better than one.
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Socialstyrelsen : Öppna jämförelser av hälso- och sjukvårdens kvalitet och effektivitet
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Economist Jokes
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Far More Americans Now See Their Country as Sharply Divided Along Economic Lines
I Wonder…
…what my ISP thought I was doing.
Answer: Bought Tchaikovsky’s symphonies via the intertubes, that’s what.